Two visitors: Spencer and Lucas Fair. They’re Canucks fans, so on behalf of the government: Go, Leafs, go.

Speaker, that member sits about two seats away from a Liberal member, so she had to have heard earlier, during question period, while the Minister of Economic Development was talking about all the progress we’re making in our economy—that he said, “You sure talk about the carbon tax a lot.” And he’s absolutely right.

Because we’re not milking this, unlike our dairy farmer friends. This is a major problem here in the province and it affects long-term care because Bonnie Crombie, the queen of the carbon tax, continues to support this regressive tax that’s going to triple by the end of 2028. This is a problem for long-term-care homes because we are facing the ever-increasing cost of construction, as that great member said.

We’re still going to fight back. That’s why we’ve increased the construction funding subsidy as well as doubling the Local Priorities Fund to $35 million, Speaker. We’re going to help our homes get more training, more equipment, better-quality food to our residents in our homes, Speaker, because this is the right thing to do. Our province was built by the hard-working seniors in our communities. We’re going to take care of them.

Well, Speaker, we are doing a lot and I appreciate that question. Let’s just look at the most recent budget, right? I mentioned the $155 million for the construction funding subsidy 2.0. That’s going to allow for thousands of more spaces to get online. But above and beyond that, the highest increase to level-of-care funding—this is operational support for staffing, for food for our seniors—in history of 6.6% annualized.

And Speaker, a one-year support of $202 million. That’s $2,543 per space in long-term care so that seniors can get the repairs they deserve, whether it’s a leaky faucet, new televisions, new supports, new equipment, new rec room. This is a government that said we are taking care of our seniors.

Now, the Liberals can heckle the carbon tax all they want, but their record on long-term care is clear. When they exited government in 2018, they built 611 net new beds. We have 18,000 built with shovels in the ground, well on our way to 15,000. We’re getting it done for our seniors.